Statement of intent

Well I am at the precipice of change in my life. My partner Timothy and I have basically come to the point where we have lost everything. Our house went the way of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and we have had an unsuccessful string of renting houses. Also there has been a major lack of employment for my partner, and I am on disability due to several medical conditions. This has led us to living in the basement at Timothy’s mother’s home.
I have always been attracted to growing plants and gardens; I have worked with everything from simple home gardens to commercial sized fields of growing. I have had experience living on a working farm tending livestock and know how to successfully complete most simple projects.
Having said all that, we have started the discussion of creating a self sustainable and self-sufficient way of life. In order to do this I have started a project that should help make some money available to us, at least the system is progressing as planned thus far. We have picked the target date of June 15th 2010 as the beginning of the actual relocation and start of habitation of the property. We want to obtain a parcel of property in the 40 to 160 acre range with owner financing or direct purchase. Ideally it would be some type of former ranch land with realistic access to water.
The home itself will be a series of 3 geodesic domes, 1 40’ central dome and 2 25’ side domes connected with corridors. The central dome will be the living space and the 2 outer domes will be a greenhouse and a storage/workshop. Initially we will be providing power through a gas generator and battery system and we will live in a 27’ camper. Construction will begin with creating the necessary foundation for the buildings and all of the excavation work. We chose geodesic domes because they require less building material and can be built relatively quickly.
We first of all need to say at this point that we are very much aware that this will be a major undertaking for the 2 of us to complete. In fact we know that it will be the work of a lifetime kind of thing. We are beginning to research and plan all parts of this project know, hopefully anticipating and meeting all of our goals and challenges. We are not looking at moving back into the Stone Age. Rather, we want to create a way to provide for our own needs. One thing that we know that we have to have is a connection with the world at large. Luckily we have the ability to get cell phone coverage in most areas of the United States at this point and we have a cellular data package that allows us internet access. The generator and a battery system will provide us with minimal power until we can start generating our own. Cost is our major associated problem and we plan to overcome that through hard work, ingenuity and salvage.
I am writing this as a way to keep my thoughts organized and to hear suggestions from other people about how to proceed and what we should include. This is a long time dream of mine and I am very excited by the possibilities. We are planning to raise some livestock for food and to grow as much of our produce as possible, but some things will have to be purchased for consumption, especially in the beginning. We will be preserving as much as we can produce as is feasible eventually diminishing our reliance for food. Some of the animals that we are considering for the farm would be chickens, pigs, cows and rabbits. The greenhouse portion of the living structure will help provide controlled growing environment for seedlings and intemperate weather growing.
Heating will be a major concern for us to overcome, and we will have to plan for that carefully. I am thinking that some type of pellet/burner system combined with solar collection will be the eventual choice that we will make, but again I will be researching this continually. We will be updating this post as we reach decisions and make plans, as well as progress. I know that in my heart that this can be successfully and affordably done. Now we just have to prove it.
As I said before I am very open to ideas and suggestions. We would also be interested in sources of grants or partnerships to make this work. We are not the first or only people to do this and we want to learn from the experience of others. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thank you in advance for your help in accomplishing our goals.